


Five Things (x5)

by trascendenza



Category: The Illusionist
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-30
Updated: 2007-04-30
Packaged: 2017-10-03 16:37:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trascendenza/pseuds/trascendenza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for various five things prompts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Things (x5)

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by tinheart.

**Five Names Eisenheim Has Been Known By** (67w)

5\. _Little boy_. He wouldn't respond when the villagers said it.

4\. _Marcello_. Ideal for its commonality and invisibility.

3\. _Faustian_. The stage found him, and he did not shy from it.

2\. _Wilhelm the Magnificent_. He declined this, stating that any who classified himself as magnificent could not be such.

1\. A name that is whispered only in the ears of Uhl, for the man knows how to keep a secret.

**Five Things Uhl Regrets** (100w)

5\. The death of the Prince. An unnecessary waste of life, and moreover, he became his own judge, jury, and executioner. Uhl does not support any one man having such power.

4\. He regrets doubting Eisenheim, but he cannot regret trying to arrest him. He understands that he played his part to perfection.

3\. ...or perhaps it is more that he regrets he did not have a full view of the board until the game was over.

2\. That even if does master the Orange Tree, Eisenheim will not be there to see it.

1\. That he could not catch him, and tell him, _stay_.

**Five Things That Did Not Go According to Plan** (95w)

5\. He comes close to revealing—truthfully revealing—to the Inspector the work underfoot; to do so would be folly. He treads a fine line and wavers too near the wrong side.

4\. A girl loved in childhood may grow into a woman unrecognizable but for shared memories.

3\. A savior is not a lover; an illusionist may hide much from himself.

2\. Eisenheim thought that he knew the depths of his own heart and soul, but Austria has shown him that he has but scratched the surface.

1\. Neither was ready for what they encountered in the other.

**Five Tricks Eisenheim Could Not Replicate** (183w)

5\. _Make me disappear_, she said, but he could only make himself disappear.

4\. Humidity—or might it have been barometric pressure?—made the strokes of his painting seep and spread across the canvas until it was stained full with water-thinned ink. It was beautiful; a rare one-time treat for those in the audience.

3\. The doves were well-trained to follow his cues. One in particular, _Belladonna_, missed not a mark when he called on her. Once, early in his career, a man stood up to leave halfway through his performance and he faltered; _Belladonna_ flew without her signal, and he received his first standing ovation. Two years later, he buried her with a kiss and her favorite handkerchief.

2\. The deft touch with shadows and light that he found in the East; he sensed that the talent was not in their hands, but in their blood, and did not condemn them when they treated him as an outsider. He was well used to this.

1\. A man and a tree, disappearing into the ether, not a trace to prove they had existed.

Then again, he never tried.

**Five Inventions** (135w)

5\. A pocket that could easily be affixed to the inside of any sleeve with a mere slip of the finger. Thin and undetectable, it held a blade: clean, sharp, and deadly. Also unused, but Eisenheim was not one to be caught unprepared.

4\. Silent, quiet, and unobtrusive until its crescendo, it caught spectators with their air only halfway breathed—a chorus of voices that rose from the floorboards themselves. Many were brought to tears, for though the language was recognized by very few, the intent was crystalline clear: mourning.

3\. A face that changes appearance with the position of the sun, and in many cases, the eye of the viewer. Concealment, he has found, is half the work of illusion.

2\. A man called Eisenheim.

1\. A ring that would fit on the hand of no other man.


End file.
